Thingamablog

Features

Thingamablog is a cross-platform, standalone blogging application. Unlike other blogging solutions, Thingamablog does not require a third-party blogging host, a cgi/php enabled web host, or a MySQL database. Static web pages are created by entry, by category and/or by date and are published by FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server.

The Thingamablog application allows the user to maintain multiple blogs, to create layouts through customizable templates and to use custom template tags that avoid repetitive input. The application has an integrated feed reader that can also be used to import entries from RSS and Atom feeds.

When entries are posted it is also possible to syndicate these via RSS or Atom feed and to ping blog search engines.

Pro and cons

Thingamablog generates static web pages that can be published on webservers without database facilities. To mimic a database generated blog every entry is copied in separate archive and category pages. At fixed intervals, by default every month, the application updates, regenerates and republishes all previously created pages and entries.

As the database is saved on a local computer the application is most suited for single user blogs. Although not entirely impossible there is no database sharing between several users, but remote (registered) users can send in entries by mail that will be automatically published.

A Java-related bug removes the </object>-tag in the Wysiwyg screen making it hard to embed Flash or (YouTube) movies in Internet Explorer, although workarounds do exist. Another bug (probably due to a Java upgrade from February 2010) sometimes freezes the application while updating an altered post containing an image. The internal database, however, is not affected by this behaviour. A solution to this problem exists as well.